This year the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) carries the theme ‘Beat Plastic Pollution’ in celebration of Environment Day. Every year the theme is determined based on hot issues and trends at the time. Of course every country will celebrate Environment Day according to their respective priorities, referring to the theme that has been proclaimed globally.

“Plastic is one of the synthetic materials used everywhere today. When we are in remote areas, both in terrestrial ecosystems and marine ecosystems, we cannot escape encounters with plastic waste. This plastic problem does not only occur spatially (space), but also in a different temporal (time) way. So anywhere and anytime, we will find plastic as a pile of garbage,” said Prof Hefni Effendi, Professor of IPB University.

For West Java Province, the celebration of Environment Day is centered at the Learning Restoration Center, Pasir Putih Mangrove Ecotourism, Sukajaya Village, Cilamaya Kulon District, Karawang Regency in mid-June. This location was chosen because mangrove rehabilitation activities in this place were considered to show significant positive results. On the other hand, this location is used as a beach resort which is quite popular with visitors.

The celebration of Environment Day in Karawang was initiated by PHE ONWJ in collaboration with DLH West Java Province and other government agencies. In its implementation it also involved a research team from the Center for Environmental Science (PPLH) IPB University.

Prof Hefni Effendi as the head of the IPB University team for this Environment Day celebration revealed that the collaboration between PPLH IPB University and PHE ONWJ had been established for a long time. This synergy covers various matters related to environmental management on the north coast of West Java around the location where PHE ONWJ carries out offshore oil and gas exploration and exploitation operations.

“Complete the mangrove planting which has been carried out at this location previously by PHE ONWJ, when the event took place symbolically also planted 1,000 mangroves and various types of associated mangrove plants in order to enrich the number of species and the number of individual plants,” said Prof Hefni.

Prof Hefni also stated that environmental rehabilitation efforts should be bottom-up based. The aspiration to protect the environment and rehabilitate the environment should arise from the people who live around the degraded land.

“When these aspirations arise from the community, a desire (passion) will also arise to take action independently and take care of them. The sense of ownership will also be maintained,” said the Head of the Department of Aquatic Resources Management (MSP), Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Sciences (FPIK) IPB University.

 
Furthermore, he continued, it is this action based on independence that should be supported by corporations and supervised by the government in its implementation. Academics entered into this collaboration through technical assistance starting from planning, operating and monitoring the rehabilitation process.

“When the basic pillars of stakeholders involved in the rehabilitation and maintenance of mangroves play their respective roles well, then undoubtedly efforts to rehabilitate mangroves that have been degraded by natural or anthropogenic effects will produce sweet success,” said Prof. Hefni.

Sources: IPB News